stars lie hidden in your soul
by wild wolf free17
Summary: In Pegasus, they found the people weren't that different. elemental!AU
1. foreshock

**Title**: foreshock

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU in a major way

**Pairings**: pre-McShep

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 485

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

In Pegasus, they found the people weren't that different. They were harder, and hardier, less inclined to play around but not above games. They welcomed strangers with a wariness only the war-torn nations back home had, but only rarely turned them away.

"We need friends," Dr. Weir said, in the quiet way of all earths. "We are strangers here, Colonel Sumner. We don't know this galaxy."

"We don't need anyone but ourselves," he replied, flames dazzling across his palm. "We'll bring this galaxy to heel."

John looked from one to the other, then turned away. They'd work it out, and Colonel Sumner had made it clear his place was only as a light-switch, so he'd go play nice with the geeks. Maybe after, he could sneak away for a test-flight in Pegasus air.

Atlantis sang to him as he walked down the hall, trailing his fingers on the wall. _Welcome, welcome, son of Air,_ she whispered. _We have missed you_.

"Ah, Major," Dr. McKay said as he strode in. "Touch this." He held out some sort of… something. It looked kind of like a toaster.

John took it from him, turning it over in his hands. _On_, he thought at it. Nothing happened. He shrugged, giving it back to McKay. "Not working."

McKay frowned down at it before placing it on the table. "No matter," he said. "Next!" He grabbed something else and John looked at the table, full of shiny Ancient toys to play with, most of which were probably broken.

Oh, yeah, he'd go flying later. He'd have to, just to decompress.

"So, what's Pegasus like?" Dr. McKay asked without looking up from his computer.

John shrugged again, examining an Ancient marker. "Kinda like Earth, really," he answered.

McKay snorted. "That's about right," he grumbled.

Flicking a glance at the scientist, John said, "I don't think I told you this earlier, but thank you." As McKay raised his head, John added, "For saving all our lives."

McKay's mouth opened, but he kept silent, like he was searching for words. After a moment, he said, "It was nothing. Just another day at the office, raising Ancient cities from the depths of the sea. Nothing."

John hid his smile by ducking his head. "So, you're pretty powerful, then?"

McKay perked right up, saying, "Strongest water on Earth." Then he admitted, "Though, having all that ocean around did help some."

Chuckling, John said, "I bet." Smirking, he mused, "You know, we're not on Earth anymore. Some of the natives I met, they were elements, too."

McKay glared at him, but it didn't seem that serious. "Well, thank you for that tidbit of knowledge, Major." A smile lurked in his eyes. "Touch this." He held out another doohickey; John took it.

"I'm gonna go flying later," John told him. "You wanna come with me?"

"Actually," McKay replied, jotting down a note, "I've been meaning to go swimming."


	2. to be of mud instead of stars

**Title**: to be of mud instead of stars

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun. Title from Shana Abe.

**Warnings**: AU

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 340

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Atlantis is strange. Nowhere else she has ever been, has Teyla felt so… adrift, away from sure and steady ground. The dirt is deep, far beneath the ocean. She can barely hear it, and should she have need of it, Teyla is uncertain if she has the strength to call it to her aid.

The Alantians—Earthlings, one of the soldiers said—also have Ancestral gifts. All of them. At about two hundred, that amount nears how many Teyla has seen in all her travels. Her father, too, had been a GroundSpeaker, but no other Athosian in her clan.

All four of the elements are represented on Atlantis. The power—it sings. The leader, Dr. Weir, is like Teyla. After she catches her breath, Teyla is happy to speak with Dr. Weir("Call me Elizabeth."), to share history and lore.

Teyla feels slightly guilty for her bit of relief that Colonel Sumner did not survive. He was quick to anger, quick to act—he had no time for reflection, no time to consider other paths. Like all FlameSpeakers Teyla has met, he flared and burned all obstacles, but that is not a leader's way.

Major Sheppard, on the other hand—Teyla is not sure he'll do any better. And Dr. McKay—he is impatient and loud. The power between them… Teyla is glad they seem to on her side.

They have the makings of a great people, the Atlantian-Earthlings, but they are so very young. She will do what she can to help them find their place in this new land—the Pegasus Galaxy, they call it. Elizabeth had explained the legend of a winged horse. It seems very apt, considering Major Sheppard's gift, the most powerful SkySpeaker she has ever heard tell of.

At night, Teyla listens hard, straining to hear past Atlantis' creaks and groans, for the lullaby of the ground. It is so very far away.

Often, she dreams of her father and the games they played when he taught her what it meant to be a GroundSpeaker.


	3. it could move you like a wind

**Title**: it could move you like a wind

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun. Title from Adrienne Rich.

**Warnings**: takes place during "The Storm" and "The Eye"; AU

**Pairings**: none stated

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 575

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

As far as John can tell, none of the Genii force invading Atlantis are elements. The ability is rare here in Pegasus—maybe one in a hundred, instead of the one in five back home. Most soldiers are elements, and almost all governmental leaders. The entire expedition is.

But the Genii invaders are merely human. He tracks them by their breathing and asphyxiates them, pulling air from their molecules. He would leave them alive, but Kolya killed Elizabeth and will kill Rodney. A dead enemy at his back is better than an unconscious one, and he has no time for mercy.

He masks all sound of his movement, ghosting through his city; she whispers to him to _go this way_ or _take that corridor_, and he follows with no hesitation.

Outside, wind is howling; he and Rodney had tried to slow the storm, but even their combined might was nowhere near strong enough.

Kolya keeps up contact with his men, changing the frequency of their radios. John doesn't need to know what they're saying—air speaks to him and he listens. He listens to air and Atlantis and he kills an entire strike force and then their reinforcements, until finally only Kolya and his second-in-command remain, backing toward the gate with Rodney and Elizabeth as hostages.

John freezes in place, drinking in the sight of Elizabeth alive, before he sees the flash of red on Rodney's arm and _knows_.

"Major Sheppard," Kolya says, rage in his voice and in the tight grip of his arm across Rodney's throat. He has a pistol to Rodney's head. "You killed all my men."

John had never been trained to kill with his ability. It was one of the few rules on Earth that every nation followed. If war came down to the elements, nothing would be left, so they stuck to guns and bombs, and sent in the elements to clean up the land after.

But this is Pegasus and he killed over sixty men tonight, and Kolya was the reason. Kolya came into his city and killed two of his men and said he killed Elizabeth and sliced Rodney's arm, and Earth rules no longer apply.

Kolya and his second are screaming as they collapse on the ground; Rodney and Elizabeth hurry across the room. They watch in silence as the two invaders convulse and die in agony.

After a moment, John asks, "What just happened?"

Rodney looks at him and then glances away. "I-I boiled their water."

Elizabeth winces and pats his non-injured arm. "You did what you had to, Rodney. Now, can you get the shield up in time?"

Rodney shakes his head. "The storm is about to hit and we'd have to go clear across the city. I can't."

John nods tiredly and closes his eyes, imagining a bubble of air around the city, working in the lashing wind of the storm. He'll have to stay conscious for it to work, and he's already exhausted.

"John," Rodney says softly in his ear, "let's go. We can rebuild."

He shakes his head as his eyes open. "No," he answers simply. "They died for a reason."

Rodney studies him for a long moment, reaching out to steady him as John trembles. Finally, Rodney nods. "I'll work on the rain," he says.

They couldn't keep the storm from coming, but they can manage it together while Elizabeth radios everyone to let them know they're all three still alive.


	4. aftershock

**Title**: aftershock

**Fandom**: "Stargate: Atlantis"

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: spoilers for season four; AU

**Pairings**: McShep

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 550

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Atlantis stops talking in what, on Earth, would be December. Rodney understands; he hasn't felt much like talking in a while, either.

_It'll be alright, _he tells her, trying to be soothing like a soft summer rain, even though the sea outside is raging with his emotions, with his grief and fear and anger and hatred. _It'll get easier. I swear._

It's not his first lie to the city, to home, to himself. And it won't be the last.

o0o

Carter is a good leader. She's smart and funny and sharp, biting where Elizabeth was calm. That's the difference between earth and fire, Rodney thinks. Teyla and Ronon have that balance, too.

Something's missing, with John gone. Their group is uneven, now. Fire and earth and water, with no air—it's not right.

Atlantis is empty, barren, desolate. And so is Rodney.

o0o

He goes swimming in the ocean every week, trying to release all his feelings into the water. It roils and roars, swelling with tidal waves that smash into beaches on the other side of the planet.

On Earth, he really had been the strongest of all waters. Here, that might is still unquestioned. So when he dives into the water from the east pier—_their_ pier—no one thinks about it. And no one ever brings it up, even when the city shakes from the force of his ocean.

o0o

Rodney had stayed behind to work on some project, something he can't even remember now. Ronon had a broken arm from sparring with a dozen marines at the same time. Teyla was too far along in her pregnancy to risk a mission.

It was supposed to be easy, just some recon. John, Lorne, and some marines. Easy.

John never came home.

o0o

After, no one could near Ronon without being scorched for days. Teyla was slightly more approachable, but even the least of all elements could feel her rage as the ground trembled deep beneath the ocean.

And, of course, no one missed the sea's wrath.

o0o

Rodney hasn't cried. He won't. Teyla names her son John, and Ronon forces him to run every day, and Carter tries to assign them another member, another air to balance them out.

The girl does her best, but none of them can stand her.

Rodney hasn't cried and Atlantis still won't talk, not like she did for John. At night, as he sleeps, the sea still screams.

He is the most powerful water in living memory, maybe in all history, and Carter tells him he has to get ahold of himself before he sinks Atlantis back beneath the waves.

o0o

_It will get better_, he whispers to Atlantis, every morning and every evening, watching the sunset, Teyla and Ronon flanking him.

Teyla holds her infant son and Ronon stands tall. They stay silent; words are unnecessary.

Every time, as they turn to go to their rooms, Teyla whispers, _He could yet come back_.

Rodney never responds.

He feels it, deep in his marrow, in his heart and his soul and his most primal self—John Sheppard is dead. The ocean cries it for him, every night, but if Teyla must delude herself, so be it.

o0o

A year passes, and two, and the ocean finally stops crying for John.


	5. all I can do is hold you tight

**Title**: all I can do is hold you tight

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; title from Plumb.

**Warnings**: AU

**Pairings**: mentions of John/Rodney, Teyla/Kanaan

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 420

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

Three years after Atlantis stopped talking, a message on the rain woke Rodney. It wasn't clear, a jumble of images, but the excitement in the water's tone refused to let him fall back asleep. He blinked up at the ceiling, a pillow clutched against his chest. It no longer smelled like John, but he still pretended.

_What?_ he asked the ocean and the raindrops. _What are you trying to say?_

For the first time since John didn't come home, he heard Atlantis' voice, loud in jubilation.

Without bothering to dress in more than his nightclothes, Rodney ran to the control room.

o0o

Teyla could not say what woke her. She lay in bed with Kanaan, listening to his and Johnny's breath.

Something rumbled beneath the sea; the mainland murmured, but over the water, the message became garbled. The tone made her heart race. She would not be able to sleep again, so she silently left the bed and pulled on her casual Athosian robes, leaving to wander the halls.

Her pulse pounded with the land's message, but Teyla could not puzzle it out. Excitement thrummed in her skin and she went to the control room. She wanted to look at the Ancestor's Ring, to listen to its ancient stories.

o0o

Ronon hardly slept anymore. If he wasn't sparring or running, he stared out over the ocean or went deep into the bowels of the city and lit things on fire.

His body hummed with the need to burn, to raze his enemies to the ground, but no one knew who had taken Sheppard. Ronon would've tracked someone down and made them talk, but he'd once sworn to Sheppard that if anything ever happened, he'd take care of McKay.

Ronon was pacing around Atlantis when a breeze tugged on his hair. He jerked away and looked around, fingers on his gun.

No one dared use their SkySpeaking on him since Sheppard—

_Go_, his instincts screamed and Ronon sprinted for the control room.

o0o

When John stepped through the stargate into Atlantis, the city lit up and howled her welcome. His team rushed in from three directions and his relief at being home formed a small whirlwind.

"John, John, John," Rodney babbled, latching on, crushing John to his chest.

Teyla plastered herself to his side, holding on, fingers fisted in his tattered shirt.

And Ronon scooped them all up and squeezed so tight John's still-fragile ribs protested.

The techs and marines watched in silent shock, mouths open, as sirens blared and lights flashed, Atlantis welcoming him home.


End file.
